As I am starting work on my and my son's first serious layout, and am curious as to the benefits of the kato unitrack. Obviously you don't need to ballast or use roadbed, etc. but I am mainly concerned with the appearance afterwords. I have only seen unitrack in pictures, and it seems to not look as "real" as weathered and ballasted flex track. It is somewhat more expensive, what are the pros and cons. I am a firm believer in doing things right the first time, am I more likely to be happy with the traditional ballasted, weathered flex track, or is the unitrack better looking in person...thanks for the help...
I use Unitrack, and am pleased with it's appearance after ballasting with the Kato Ballast. I like the ease of use, and durability of this track, but it can get a little expensive, especially if you plan on using a lot of turnouts. Take a look at my web page http://members.cox.net/chesapeakenscaler/home.htm There are a couple of pics that show the Unitrack with ballast applied.
I like Unitrack, but I really don't think it's for non-temporary setups. I use it for setting up a loop around my desk, and I'm planning on just a plain shelf all the way around a room, on which will be a re-arrangeable few loops of Unitrack so I can just "run trains" when I get tired of messing with scenery and being concerned with scale accuracy.
Chesapeaker...great pics...I would not have known that was Unitrack...thanks for sharing..and great job with your sceneary.
Sorry guys - I think Kato makes great locos but their track looks toy-like. I have PECO code 55, which doesn't look too bad once painted and ballasted (I know, it’s European –but it’s pretty difficult to tell). If I were to do it all over again (extremely unlikely) I would use micro-scale code 40 (I believe this is correct?). I saw this track (up-close) while on vacation in California this past August at the San Diego Balboa park n-scale layout museum – it looked fantastic.
I am using Kato Uni-track on a home layout.I have played around with colorring the rails using a black permanent marker for the "T" portion of the rail and a brown permanent marker for the web portion of the rail. the Black seams to disappear and the eye is drawn to the browm part of the rail. I willtry to get some pictures ,toshow how it looks. loco-leonard
About 1/4 of my present layout is Unitrack and I love it. I wish I had started the layout using it instead of finishing up with it. With extra balasting over the Kato roadbed, it looks pretty good. I have never experienced any problems with it and it's been down 10 years. There have been no electrical problems nor derailings (that weren't caused by me!). The initial cost is a little high but, I balance that off with all the time and effort of laying down roadbed, soldering, installing feeders, and all the "tweaking" to make sure the trackwork is "perfect". I plan to build a smaller layout in the next two years that I will be able to take with me in our motor home and I will use Unitrack exclusively. Dick
I trashed all my C80 track after my first visit to the railroad museum in San Diego 2 years ago, and replaced it all with Atlas C55. You are right that they are using C40 rail, handlaid, and I am really considering doing some C40 handlaid spurs on my layout, so NO, I would never user Katos UniTrack on a permanent layout, to toy like. Just my opinion. Jesper
I trashed all my C80 track after my first visit to the railroad museum in San Diego 2 years ago, and replaced it all with Atlas C55. You are right that they are using C40 rail, handlaid, and I am really considering doing some C40 handlaid spurs on my layout, so NO, I would never user Katos UniTrack on a permanent layout, to toy like. Just my opinion. Jesper </font>[/QUOTE] [ 03. December 2002, 06:12: Message edited by: Gary Lewis ]
Kato Unitrack? KACHINGGGGG$$$$! I'm sure it works great. But Bill Gates I am not. [ 03. December 2002, 12:59: Message edited by: Bruce-in-MA ]
